Ecotopia
The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston
by Ernest Callenbach · first published 1975
69% recommend31% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Utopian novel imagining a secessionist ecological society on the US West Coast. Valued for its political imagination and alternative to modern industrial life. Recommended to sci-fi readers and 1970s New Left fans.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston is a utopian novel by Ernest Callenbach, published in 1975. The society described in the book is one of the first ecological utopias and was influential on the counterculture and the green movement in the 1970s and thereafter. The author himself claimed that the society he depicted in the book is not a true utopia (in the sense of a perfect society), but, while guided by societal intentions and values, was imperfect and in-process. Callenbach said of the story, in relation to Americans: "It is so hard to imagine anything fundamentall
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Ecotopia is of a similar genre at a slightly higher reading level. I encourage you to look into it. http://www.amazon.com/Ecotopia-Ernest-Callenbach/dp/05533484...
on “The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012 [pdf]” ↗Not going to happen. Can't secede. See "American Civil War". But read "Ecotopia" and "Ecotopia Emerging".
on “Secessionists formally launch quest for California's independence” ↗…of the year, of course. Terrifying. Maybe because I read a lot of sci-fi, I've always "known". Most memorable to me have been John Brunner's Shockwave Rider, The Sheep Look Up, and Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia. But of course, post-apocalyptic is a popular storyline, so there have been zillions others. -- PS, for the down voter(s), one of the minor plot lines from the TV show Dallas was Bobby Ewing's renewable…
on “Extreme climate change has arrived in America” ↗Not saying these are the best, but they probably should be in consideration: 1948, Walden Two, B.F. Skinner 1975, Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston, Ernest Callenbach
on “Ask HN: Which books do you think created the best Perfect/Utopia worlds?” ↗"Ecotopia" by: Earnest Callenbach "Self Reliance" by: Ralph Waldo Emerson "The Iron Heel" by: Jack (fuckin) London!
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗…the classical era's accumulated human knowledge when papyrus scrolls were burned/destroyed in the Middle Ages. Is computer storage much more resilient than papyrus in the face of social upheaval? 2) Ecotopia What if Northern California seceded and let its crazy out in a super-green, post-technological, self-sufficient independent state? This book, written in the 1970s, has ridiculous foresight and anyone…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2016?” ↗one of the most influential books on this topic for me was : Ecotopia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotopia it attempts to solve all of man's biological, emotional, and spiritual needs via a techno-eco master plan. top 10 book on my list. enjoy
on “Like startups, most intentional communities fail. Why?” ↗I've been recommending Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach. Very few under 30s have heard of it. A classic of the 1970s New Left. Yet stunningly predicts the current secessionist mindset of the Alt Right. Plus ca change ;)
on “Show HN: An anti-book recommendation tool, to help you escape your echo chamber” ↗the "project hieroglyph" anthology is great. it's "techno-optimistic science fiction" which isn't 100% identical to solarpunk but does have considerable overlap. among older SF, "ecotopia" would definitely be called solarpunk if it were published today. it's a little preachy but I enjoyed it. becky chambers's "monk and robot" books are great modern examples, I can definitely recommend…
on “From Steampunk to Solarpunk (2008)” ↗…energy price by implementing a fixed monthly charge on each customer, aimed at covering some of the costs of retail distribution, metering and billing." That's straight out of the 1975 hippie classic "Ecotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston" - and is one of the Casus belli California cited when seceding from the union in that book.
on “Rate-design wars are the sound of utilities taking residential PV seriously” ↗Thanks for sharing this book...and the Latin! Links for both below if anyone else is interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotopia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casus_belli
on “Rate-design wars are the sound of utilities taking residential PV seriously” ↗…recent left-wing utopian fiction does address recreation (whether Orwell would find the utopias described therein to be fun is, I suppose, an open and unanswerable question), notably including Callenbach’s Ecotopia, which certainly is more relevant to the views of the modern American (or Western, more generally) left than the works referenced in Orwell’s work.
on “Why Socialists Don't Believe in Fun (1943)” ↗This reminds me of an old SF book, Ecotopia, where the west coast of the USA secedes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotopia Wow, hadn't thought about that book in years (the action takes place in 1999!).
on “The American Nations regions across North America” ↗ECOTOPIA is back in play. (1975 novel, Walden-Twoish) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotopia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopian_and_dystopian_fiction#...
on “'Tremendous chaos': Northern Calif. politician wants to split state in two” ↗